Published on 27/07/2024
President Museveni has dismissed Geraldine Ssali, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives, who is currently jailed and facing charges of corruption.
In her place, the President has appointed Alex Kakooza, formerly the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education and most recently serving as the principal private secretary to the Vice-President.
This decision follows Ssali’s arrest on July 18, 2024, on allegations of causing significant financial loss to the government and conspiring with Members of Parliament to embezzle cooperative funds.
Ssali remains on remand alongside MPs Michael Mawanda, Ignatius Wamakuyu, and Paul Akamba, as well as lawyer Julius Kirya Taitankonko and Leonard Kavundira, the principal cooperative officer at the Trade Ministry.
According to prosecution, Ms Ssali, during the financial year 2021/ 2022 and 2022/ 2023, introduced Buyaka Growers Co-operative Society among those to be compensated by the government for the war loss yet it had not been listed for a supplementary budget of August 2021.
Prosecution also alleges that in her performance of her duties, Ssali made irregular payments to a tune of Shs3.868 billion to Kirya and Company Advocates, a law firm belonging to co-suspect lawyer Julius Kirya Taitankonko, under the guise of compensating war victims of Buyaka Growers well knowing that her actions will cause government a financial loss because the said payment was in contravention of the Treasury instructions of 2017.
HE Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has since vowed that by the time ”we run out of space in Luzira, people will have lost appetite for corruption. The battle against corruption is more achievable and is not as tough as it seems.”
Museveni, who is expected to be the vanguard of rule of law and democracy, would be expected to wait for court ruling for him to be to sack Ssali or to retain her, depending on the direction of the court ruling. He has however not waited for that long process, a lawyer told our Spy on Friday via telephone.
According to the President, the current problem of corruption in the country is mainly being spearheaded by the Permanent Secretaries, Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs), Town Clerks and Gombolola Chiefs.
“These are the four people in Uganda who are in charge of government money, personnel, jobs and procurement. So, the corruption which is happening is because of these four and unfortunately, they have let themselves down but we are here. I have your support and that of the freedom fighters and the victims are also there so the three of us, we are going to crush the corrupt,” he says.
